Fonterra, Sharesies join to make share trading easier
Fonterra is teaming up with wealth app provider Sharesies to make it easier for its farmer shareholders to trade co-op shares among themselves.
MILK, BUTTER AND cheese lead a rise in exports in March which exceeded $5 billion in a month for the first time.
Exports rose $671 million in the March month, to $5.1 billion with milk powder, butter, and cheese up $474 million (45%) compared with March 2013.
"This is the first time monthly exports have exceeded $5 billion, and annual exports have exceeded $5 billion," says international statistics manager Jason Attewell. "Record dairy exports pushed the values past these thresholds."
Imports rose $483 million (13%) to $4.2 billion, which was influenced by a one-off large capital item. The trade surplus was $920 million. This is the highest recorded surplus for a March month.
For the March quarter meat and fruit lead the rise in total value of export goods by 2.1% to $13.6 billion in the March 2014 quarter, Statistics New Zealand says. This follows rises in the previous two quarters.
"Meat and fruit led the increase in seasonally adjusted exports Attewell says. "This is the second consecutive quarter that both values and quantities for these two commodities have risen."
Seasonally adjusted meat values rose 8.7% in the March quarter, and quantities rose 6.8%. Fruit values rose 27% , and quantities rose 20%.
The rise in meat and fruit was offset slightly by a fall in milk powder, butter, and cheese, down 2.4%. The fall in dairy follows 26% increases in both the September and December 2013 quarters. Despite the small fall this quarter, dairy remains at high levels and is the leading contributor (31% to total exports.
Imports rose 1.5%to $12.5 billion in the March 2014 quarter. The increase was led by a rise in capital goods.
The seasonally adjusted trade balance for the March 2014 quarter was a surplus of $1.1 billion. This follows a surplus of $986 million in the December 2013 quarter.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
There have been leadership changes at the Hamilton-based Dairy Goat Co-operative, which has been struggling financially in recent years.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: In recent years farmers have been crying foul of unworkable and expensive regulations.
Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.